Monday, February 1, 2016

Art in Quiapo? The Padilla Art Gallery

For most people Quiapo and Art are not two words you’ll see together in one sentence, but for us its an amazing sight to see!

Padilla house facade
2016 is a new year so why not start off with a new discovery in one of the most unlikely places.
Quiapo has always been viewed as the crowded public market you’d go to for something cheap or a prayer while someone steals your wallet. Little do people know that somewhere in the historic Hidalgo st. at the corner of Z.P. De Guzman st. a marble white house holds beautiful artworks that depict everything that is beautiful about Quiapo and Old Manila.

Manny Padilla a real-estate man and artist renovated his family’s ancestral home in Quiapo from his father. He studied Physical Therapy in The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines (UST) and Industrial Design in Polytecnico de Valencia.

His heart in artistry fueled him to express his emotion on painting without restraint. From this he ventured off to Filipiniana themes showing the joyful festivals of the provinces and 19th century celebrations done in Manila to which Filipinos are known for. He wanted to revive Quiapo and make it a thriving area for culture and arts, hoping that his efforts will rejuvenate the district and promote the rest of Quiapo’s hidden heritage; to show that Quiapo is not just a place of grime, but could also be a place of rejuvenation.

Inside the Padilla Art Gallery
The restoration finished sometime in 2012, giving the house a facelift with a new coat of paint, stained glass windows, additional ornaments, and a collection of his paintings and porcelain displayed inside. Its even air-conditioned!! One of his paintings depict the procession of the Black Nazarene and neighborhood of Chinatown, Binondo. The Art Gallery is settled in the second floor, passing through a small entrance and going up the old wooden stairs. While the ground floor has been rented out for retail, one of which is a computer shop where in the caretaker of the house works.

We wouldn’t want to show everything in this article, so we encourage you to visit the Gallery soon and see it for yourself. Make sure to visit in groups!

If you wanna check out Manny Padilla’s great works, you can ask the female caretaker manning the computer shop downstairs and asking for an appointment to visit the gallery in advance; preferably 2 days before the visit. The caretaker is nice and a friend of Manny Padilla and she’s the only one who cleans the gallery whenever there are visitors.

The entrance fee is 35 pesos.

Written by : Peter Danielle Rallos
Photos and Editted by : AXL Guinto

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